Four Favorites

Nadia did a really good job smiling at Sears today. I had a hard time picking which of the 11 poses to order. I thought I'd only spend $10, but I spent $19 which still wasn't bad considering how many of the poses I loved! There were other good ones, but I'll save those to post over the next few days. :-)

This first photo (above) I got as one of 4 photos in an 8x10 collage (3 small and one big). This was one of the small ones. When we got one collage in July, we paid $30 for it. Today I got 2 collages for $5 each (one for us and one for Paul's parents). That was a good deal! :-)

Usually at Sears no matter what package or coupon you use, you get a free 10x13. Well the coupon I got by email was to get any size portrait sheet for free (so I got two 5x7's - one for us and one for my mom). You were also allowed to have a free enhancement (normally $9) and a free personalization (not sure of the cost of that). I got this one (above) enhanced. It's zoomed in (more of a close up) and has other special effects hard to describe. I didn't opt for personalization. I'll scan it when I pick it up in 2 weeks. It's really nice! I also used this as one of the 3 small ones in our collage.

This was another one of the small ones in the collage.

This is the big photo in the collage, and I got 8 wallets of this one (which is why I went over my $10 estimate of how much I'd spend). Paul and I do show our wallet photos fairly often to people at school and such so I thought it would be nice to have a more recent one for our wallet. Plus I can give one to my mom for her refrigerator. :-)

48 Hours

48 hours from now we'll be on an airplane headed to Antigua. YAHOO! 48 hours also ended up being how long I stayed on bedrest (or as my RE calls it - pelvic rest). I wanted to wash my hair badly for one thing. So about 3:30pm yesterday (since my transfer was 3:30 on Monday) I made my first trek upstairs in 2 days. I had been spending 99% of my time on the family room couch. It felt great to take a shower, sleep in my own bed, etc. I still didn't lift Nadia at all. The first time I lifted her since about 11:00am on Monday was this morning at 5:55am when she wanted out of her crib. Some RE's don't require any bedrest and some require as much as 72 hours. Hopefully 48 hours was enough - if bedrest really helps at all anyhow. Today I have gone back to normal - carrying Nadia, doing laundry, cleaning, etc.

Paul is at school for the first time in 6 days. He had a presentation to give at 9:45am and then later had to meet with the prof he TA's for to go over final grades for the students. I think when he comes home he'll be taking a nap because he got very little sleep last night (up working on his presentation). He has a paper due tomorrow and then his spring semester is over. YAY! His first priority when he gets back is to make the revisions on his master's degree thesis. He defended it in July (having written 99% of the 100+ page document in 3 weeks), but hasn't made the revisions yet. I will be glad when that's behind him as technically he hasn't earned his master's degree yet. OOPS!

I was supposed to be at interviews today at work, but I said I couldn't be there due to bedrest. Well even though my bedrest plans changed, I wouldn't have wanted to take Nadia to a babysitter again since she already spent 11.5 hours with one this week. These interviews are for adjunt positions. The GOOD news regarding the search process would be that the three tenure track candidates we selected ALL accepted their offers. HIP HIP HOOORAY! All three candidates that we selected in December had rejected their offers so I am really glad those three searches finally had a successful conclusion. One woman will be moving here from GA, one man is coming from VA, and one man is from here in PA (not sure if he'll move or not).

I have frequented the IVF discussion board a few times lately, and someone today posted a BFP. She had a 5 day transfer 6 days ago. She got a faint 2nd line yesterday (10dpo) and a darker one today (11dpo). I won't test before 12dpo, but I am not sure if I'll start testing then or wait until 13 or 14dpo. I certainly won't wait any longer than that. Regina had her transfer on Tuesday (2 great looking blasts) and finds out in 3 more days if they were able to freeze any of hers. They told her on Tuesday they thought 3 could be frozen. She started out with 13 embryos (from 21 eggs retrieved). I still can't believe that we started out with almost twice as many embryos this time (13 instead of 7) and yet only 3 of 13 were transferred (compared to 4 of 7 last time). Well I won't feel as badly about it if I see 2 lines next week! If I get a BFN I probably won't post about it. I'm not bringing my laptop so I'm not sure how easy it will be to get on a computer. However if I get a BFP I'll do my very best to post that on my blog ASAP! :-) If I have a ++ Beta on Monday, I figure it should be around 400 or so as that's where mine was at my 2nd Beta last time (which was at 19dpo which is what I'll be when this first Beta will be done). I don't like the fact that you have to get a Beta even if you know you're not pg. They don't make you do that after any other fertility cycle - just embryo transfers. I think it's because they have to report ivf data to the CDC and such.

I got a couple of great coupons in my email from Sears for photos. I am planning on only spending about $10. I wasn't planning to take her again until she turned 1, but it has been 3 months since I last took her, and these are great offers! Hopefully we'll get some good ones. :-) I figure Mother's Day is a good occasion for photos of my sweet girl. It's funny because I've avoided church many years on Mother's Day because it was too painful emotionally, but my first Mother's Day with a girl in my arms I won't be at church because I'll be on an island. I have to say though I still feel such a tenderness in my heart for those women - whether they are single and longing to become a wife & mother or whether they are married and struggling with infertility or difficulties with adopting. I know it's a rough day for many of them.

As you can see from today's photo, Nadia has learned how to open cabinet doors and kitchen drawers. :-) I'll post more photos later today from our trip to Sears.

Poor Daddy...

When Paul went to pick up Nadia yesterday, she turned and looked at him and then turned back and headed over to Sarah. This broke her Daddy's heart!!! I felt so badly for him yesterday. I tried to encourage him that Nadia loves him and not to read too much into this one event, but it really bothered him. He's always been on the insecure side in part because he can tell I am #1 to Nadia. Lately though she doesn't cry when I leave (when he's watching her) so that's helped as that also didn't go over to well with him. He always is worried that she'll forget him when I travel with her away from PA. I am praying we don't have a repeat performance when he goes to pick her up today. I am glad she enjoys being with Sarah, but her Daddy needs to know she loves him more! The good news is that aside from her 2nd nap being very short (40 minutes), she had a really good day with Sarah and the other kids yesterday. Her 1st nap yesterday was almost 2 hours (which is about 30 minutes longer than usual) so Paul took her over later than planned so she was actually there about 5 1/2 hours.

Yesterday I finished the Blackboard sites for 2 of my 3 summer courses. I plan to finish the 3rd today. I also graded one last research report yesterday. I had given this student an extension as she had a baby a few weeks ago. My other goal for today is to review an article that a journal sent me to review about a week ago. Yesterday I also enjoyed reading a novel. Today I plan to finish reading Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel which so far I am really finding to be thought provoking.

The first chapter is about the basic premise which is that we all have three driving inner needs - security, significance, and strength. The second is about grace and truth. Chapters 3-5 are on a secure love, a signifcant purpose, and a strong hope (which parallel the 3 needs). In chapter 3 he defines the love of a parent for his/her child as "the commitment of my will to your needs and best interests, regardless of the cost." Chapters 6-10 discuss the way in which he believes we can show our children how to find love, purpose, and hope in Jesus Christ. He says in grace-based families children are given the freedom to be different, vulnerable, candid, and make mistakes. The bottom line is that Tim says we should strive to treat our children the way God treats us. I am sure that is one of those things that is easier said than done, but by God's strength I want to be the best mother I can be for Nadia and any other children the Lord might send our way.

At this time in 3 days we should be on an airplane heading to Antigua. YAHOOOO! I did most of the packing last weekend. My bedrest will end tomorrow morning - it will be about 66 hours total which I think is sufficient. Tomorrow I plan to do laundry one more time and then work on packing the last few items. We're going to head to Paul's parents on Friday night around 7pm so we don't have to get up AS early on Saturday morning to drive to the Newark airport.

Then there were three

None of our remaining 4 embryos made it to blastocyst today. I figured the best case scenario was one. The odds of the three that were already 2 days behind in development catching up was probably almost zero, but I was hoping that other morula would make it although it was a day behind as well (and not as far along as the morula we had transferred yesterday). Some embryos reach morula at day 3 and blastocyst at day 4 but the "norm" is day 5 for blastocyst. Nadia took until day 6 to reach blastocyst, but we've now had 7 embyros make it to day 3 but then not make it to blastocyst by day 6, and of course I've had 3 embryos, 1 morula, and 3 blastocysts transferred to my uterus if you put the 3 transfers together. At first I felt stunned that last time we started with only 7 embryos and one did make it to the freeze whereas we started with 13 embyros this time and none made it to the freeze. Of course last time only 1 of 4 made it to blastocyst (who knows about the 3 transferred on day 3 in 2007) and 2 (probably 3) made it to blastocyst this time. I am SUPER glad though that I had that third embryo transferred yesterday. I have no regrets on that decision whatsoever.

The good news is that if I get a +++ next week it means we will have saved some $$ as the freezing costs $1,000 not to mention the costs of doing a FET. Plus if I have a sticky BFP from this fresh transfer it means we won't have any hard decisions to make regarding any frozen embryos. I would have wanted to keep transferring them, but especially if I am carrying twins or triplets, Paul would have wanted to give those frozen ones up for adoption which would have been hard for me. So I am trying to just trust that God has everything under control and there's a reason that the other 10 embryos stopped growing at various stages over the past 6 days. Of course the frightening scenario is that I lose these triplets inside me. Then I would really be wishing we could do a FET. It will be so hard to decide whether to do another fresh cycle of ivf or switch back to pursuing adoption instead. We have until December to reactivate our contract with Adoption Consultants. Reactivating our contract means doing a 4th home study and creating another batch of profiles. I forget how many we've made already, but it's more than 200. Well there's no need to figure that out now. First, we just have to wait and see if any of the three transferred to my womb yesterday will result in a heartbeat (or beats) on the ultrasound screen in about 3 weeks.

I have to admit though I feel a sense of grief today - for the 6 embryos that stopped growing before day 5 and for the 4 which didn't make it to blastocyst by day 6. They say this happens all the time with couples who get pregnant the normal way - that conception occurs far more than pregnancy. Sometimes conception occurs but not implantation, and sometimes implantation occurs but the m/c is so early that AF shows up at the regular time so the woman has no idea she was pg unless of course she's obsessive with taking hpts on the early side of things. With ivf though you know about the little lives from the first day of conception, and although you know it's almost impossible that all of them will make it, and most people aren't actually trying to have say 13 kids, it's still sad. At least for me anyhow. Especially since I've seen one of our blastocysts grow into a 10 month old baby.

It's been strange having Nadia gone for so many hours today. Paul has been upstairs in his office grading papers and working on a presentation he's giving in class on Thursday. I've been working on preparing the Blackboard sites for my summer courses. Paul said she didn't cry when he dropped her off which was great. She sees Sarah every Sunday at church which had to help. She's never been with a non-family member for this many hours in one day (6), but it would have been impossible for me to stay on bedrest AND Paul to get work done if she was here all day. I'm sure she's doing fine. She actually cries on Sunday if she sees Sarah when someone else is working in the nursery.

Transfer Done!

I had the massage at noon which was very relaxing. I've had 3 massages in the last 8 years - all before my 3 transfers. If were money were no object, I think I'd treat myself to at least one a year. :-) Paul took Nadia to the McDonald's nearby during my massage. I thought she'd enjoy the playland. Turns out this playland isn't geared for little ones, but she did enjoy watching the older children playing there.

I arrived a little late for my 1pm appt, but it wasn't a problem. I put the ever so lovely hospital gown on (lol) and was given an antiobiotic and valium. They didn't give that to me with my 2 other transfers. I definitely felt "loopy" there for awhile. Dr. O was running really behind as usual so my transfer didn't start until after 3pm even though it was supposed to be at 2pm. Dr. O came and told us we had 2 blastocysts and 1 that was a morula that the embryologist thought would be a blastocyst within a couple of hours. He suggested we transfer 2 since we were doing a blastocyst transfer; he said if we were doing a 3 day he would suggest transferring 3. He said if I was 40 he'd suggest 3 be transferred on day 5. I asked some questions he didn't know the answer to, so he sent the embryologist in to talk to us.

He said that on day 3 none of our embryos looked as good as our 3 best on day 3 in 2007 which was surprising to me since even Nadia didn't make it to blastocyst until day 6. He said he was really shocked I didn't become pg from the fresh transfer in 2007. He said it's not surprising they weren't as good this time since I'm 37 now. Of the 12 that were growing the last time we got an update (day 2), 7 were still growing. One was an excellent blastocyst, one was a pretty good blastocyst, one was a morula very soon to become a blastocyst, one was a morula, and three were still embyros. I asked him how many he thought would be frozen tomorrow if we only transferred the two best today. I was shocked when he said "none." He said he could be wrong since on day 5 in 2007 Nadia didn't look like she'd make it but then she looked great on day 6. I thought for sure he'd say 1 or 2 (the morulas). I had been leaning toward transferring 2 blasts, but that was when I thought 1-2 would be frozen. So I said I want to transfer all 3. Paul was a little more leery of that, but he said okay.

When I told the doctor my decision he said I was being very aggressive. I said I was told at the start of my cycle I had a 25% chance of pregnancy. How high could the odds really be that not only I'll get pg but all 3 will implant? He said my odds of having triplets are 2-3%. I can live with that. I couldn't bear the thought of that morula becoming a blastocyst tonight and yet not being deemed good enough to freeze. The transfer itself took forever. I think he used about 5 different speculums. He couldn't get the catheter through my cervix. I thought my bladder would burst! He sent for the embryos and then sent them back and then called them back again. Finally I watched our 3 little ones on the ultrasound. :-) Then the doctor was nice enough to use a catheter to drain my bladder. Ahhh... They had me stay on the table for 30 minutes and told me to stay on bedrest the rest of today and all day tomorrow. I plan to stay on bedrest until Thursday morning just to be on the safe side. Bedrest actually means couchrest as I know it's best to avoid steps, and since I have a laptop it means I'm still able to give you my update. :-)

So I would appreciate prayer for our 3 little blastocysts inside me that at least one will implant! If I am going to have a sticky BFP from this transfer then it won't be awful if none of the embryos make it to freeze, but right now I'm praying that at least 1 will be able to be frozen in case this transfer doesn't result in a sticky BFP. I don't like to say doesn't result in a pgcy because in my opinion, I am pregnant right now. I have 3 little tiny ones alive within my uterus. Even though they haven't implanted yet, I consider myself pregnant. I'll be taking hpts along with us on the trip next week as I won't be able to have a Beta until 19dpo in light of us being away next week. Thanks for your prayers thus far. I was thrilled when they said we had 2 blastocysts considering on day 5 in 2007 we didn't have any blastocysts. :-)

It was a long day for Nadia. Paul left during my procedure and drove around for 45 minutes. Nadia slept the whole time he was driving. I am sure she is glad that we're home now and she can get her wiggles out. She was very good considering how much time she spent in the car seat and in Daddy's arms at the hospital.

Cheerios

Nadia likes Cheerios sooooo much that she's decided to start wearing them. :-)

I am happy to announce that early this morning my sister gave birth to Rachel Elizabeth. Wendy had her first two babies early - Susie (3 1/2 weeks) and Adam (8 days), but Rachel came 4 days past her due date. She weighed 9 lbs 7 oz and was 20.5 inches long. Her hair is similar in color to her sister's (not her brother whose hair is red). I look forward to meeting my youngest niece this summer! My mom is flying out to meet her 8th grandchild (4th granddaughter) this evening.

Choir Robes

I said while pg that choir robes and pgcy are not a good mix. Well let me add that high hormone levels + standing + singing + wearing a choir robe isn't a good mix either. I've been singing in this choir since January, and they only wore robes one other time. They just don't breathe. I had a short sleeve sweater and a light-weight cardigan on. I took off the cardigan before I put on the robe, but it was still too much. I felt like I was about to faint after standing and singing a few choruses and hymns. I realized I needed to get out of the choir loft asap. Evidently I walked around in a strange pattern (as if I didn't know where I was going) which got the attention of others so a few ladies came back to check on me. One is a nurse. She said I had no color in my face and had me sit down, take deep breaths, put my feet up, take off the robe, and they opened a window for me to get some cool air. She checked my pulse and said it was racing. I sat there for awhile, and they said my color was starting to come back. Then we went to stand to wait for the prayer to be over before we went back in, and they said my color was fading again and urged me to stay seated in the choir room a bit longer. Needless to say I didn't put the robe back on even though the choir hadn't sung yet. Although I didn't continue to feel like I was about to faint, I will say I still felt a bit lightheaded the whole rest of the service including my drive home.

As my Estrodial levels were rising, I thought I'd get a bit more emotional than usual. I have to say until a few days ago I felt pretty normal even though my E2 level was about 20 times higher than usual. However the last few days I have noticed I start crying over really stupid stuff like I started crying when I heard the do, re, mi song. I loved the Sound of Music as a child, but I don't think that song ever prompted tears before, LOL! Maybe it's the progesterone? I started those shots on Friday. My butt is already getting sore believe it or not. All I know is I do NOT feel myself today. I had eaten a small bagel, light yogurt, and a banana before I went to church so I don't think it was because I didn't eat enough. Maybe I am still anemic? Who knows. I don't care to wear a choir robe again anytime soon though as it was embarassing to leave the loft in the middle of the service.

Nadia was really good in the nursery today. The last two weeks I had to rescue her and bring her into the service with me as she wasn't very happy. Today she didn't cry at all. One nursery worker said she and Nadia walked for 30 minutes straight (while Nadia was holding on to one finger of each hand of the adult). They couldn't get over how much she loves to walk! :-) Maybe that's why she only gained 1/2 lb the last month. She is definitely a girl on the go these days!

I called another massage therapist today and got a noon appt for tomorrow so I cancelled the one I made yesterday for 11:00 tomorrow as this way we won't have an hour in between the massage and when we're supposed to arrive at the hospital. The transfer is scheduled for 2pm, but we're supposed to be there at 1pm so I can take my antibiotic, valium, etc. Paul is allowed to go back with me for the ET (unlike the ER), but since he'll be watching Nadia he won't be coming back.

When I was counting my blessings a few days ago, I failed to mention the good news I got recently from the HR dept at work. Even though I'll have a course reduction in the fall, my benefits will remain unchange. WOW! I was expecting to go from paying 10% of the health insurance premium to 55% so this is a big difference for us financially. PTL!

Olive Garden!

Nadia had her first trip to Olive Garden today. It was a belated bday dinner for me with my hubby and our peanut. I thought for sure Nadia would love the breadsticks. I remember my niece, Jenna, sitting on my lap sucking a breadstick for a long time when she was little when we were in an Olive Garden in MD. Well Nadia didn't like the breadsticks! In reality it's better that she likes wheat and rye bread as those are healthier. She did like sharing my lasagna. Even with sharing I only ate half of it as I wanted to save room for dessert (which means I get to enjoy the rest of the lasagna tomorrow). My bday is usually the one time a year I order dessert at a restaurant. In the past I've gotten the Black Tie Mousse Cake, but I decided to try one of their new desserts (Chocolate Ciottoli Cake). It was delicious! While we were eating our salads, I cut up one of the black olives (which neither of us like) and fed it to Nadia; she liked it! So she likes lasagna and olives but not breadsticks. I had brought a banana and cheerios so she didn't leave hungry.

I wish we could have gotten an update on our 12 embryos today. We won't get an update until we go in at 1pm on Monday. Our transfer is scheduled for 2pm. We're bringing Nadia. The good news is that my pain level has gone down a lot today, and the bloating has also gone down more. This is another advantage of having a 5 day transfer. My ovaries were still really swollen when I had the 3 day transfer which made the external ultrasound during the transfer rather painful. Thanks for praying for our embies. It means a lot! I am so scared that none will make it to blastocyst by Monday.

Transfer will be Monday!

The nurse called about 11am and told me that all 12 embryos are still growing. She said 2 look "iffy" and 10 look great. PTL!!! In light of this update, Dr. A said we should do a blastocyst transfer on Monday. YAY! My transfer is scheduled for 1pm on Monday. Dr. A won't be in that day, so Dr. O will be doing my transfer. I am fine with that since Dr. O did my mock transfer a couple of weeks ago. Dr. A did my fresh transfer in 2007 and another doctor did my FET so my 3 transfers will have been done by 3 different RE's. I called a massage therapist whose office is right across from the hospital to see if she had an opening at noon on Monday. She's going to call me back today or tomorrow. I did a full body massage before both of my last transfers. They give a valium to relax the uterus, but I figure a massage also helps me to be really relaxed. I almost fell asleep during the massage before the FET which means I was pretty relaxed!

Then I called a lady from my new church who does babysitting in her home to see if she could watch Nadia on Tuesday and Wednesday. Paul said he'll watch Nadia on Monday and go with me to the hospital, but he needs to work all day Tues & Wed as he has a big presentation in one of his classes on Thursday (in place of a final exam). So Paul will be dropping Nadia off at Sarah's house and picking her up on both Tues and Wed. She charges $20 a day. It's well worth the $40 to enable me to be on bedrest for about 64 hours. I did 48 hours of bedrest with the fresh transfer and 72 hours with the FET. My clinic only requires 24 hours of bedrest after a transfer, but other clinics require 2 or 3 days. I figure it can't hurt! I'll miss my little peanut, but I want to feel like I am doing everything possible to help those little embryos implant.

We won't get any updates on our embryos until we are there at 1pm on Monday. I'd appreciate prayers that they would continue to grow and that they will have wisdom in selecting which ones to transfer if we have more than 3 still growing on Monday. I am very glad I get to do a 5 day transfer this time!! Since Nadia was a 6 day transfer and the 3 day didn't work, I was really hoping to do a blastocyst transfer this time with the fresh transfer.

Many steps!

The past 4 weeks Nadia has usually taken 1-2 steps about once a day on average (I am referring to steps taken without holding on to anything). Well that drastically changed yesterday when she was talking 1-4 steps at a time just about every time she was standing. I think she'll be walking very soon!! She's very proud of herself. :-) She also can crawl VERY quickly. She hasn't ventured in the direction of our stairs on her own, but if I put her on the stairs she can climb up the whole staircase. She hasn't learned how to come down (backwards) yet.

I never gave a general update on Nadia now that she's 10 months old. So I thought I'd do it today. She gained only 1/2 lb in the last month. The last several months she's gained 1 lb a month so this was less than usual. Some 9 month size clothing still fits, but mostly she is wearing size 12 month clothing. We've also promoted her to size 4 diapers all day and night.

As far as eating, she eats a solid meal plus some formula four times a day (usually at 6am, 10am, 2pm, and 5 or 6pm). If she sees Mommy or Daddy eating at any other time of day, she crawls over to us as fast as possible hoping that we'll share whatever we're eating with her. She eats baby cereal at 6am, but all the other meals are "table food" whether that's cottage cheese, a sandwich (grilled cheese, egg salad, or jelly), pasta, pizza, bananas, etc. She eats a million Cheerios a day (or so it seems anyhow). She feeds herself Cheerios and some of the other foods. Her absolute favorite thing to eat right now are red grapes. She actually starts panting with excitement if she sees some. I let her eat almost anything these days. The only things I haven't let her have yet are anything with nuts (including peanut butter), anything with chocolate, or anything I think would be a choking hazzard. I try to keep the amount of sugar she has to a minimum. Usually if she gets something with a lot of sugar it's when I just share a couple of bites with her of something I'm eating (like vanilla ice cream or butterscotch pudding).

In terms of sleeping, she usually has 2 naps a day, but every once in a while she still has 3 naps. Her naps are usually about 75 minutes long on average. The longest is usually 90 minutes although on Wednesday her 1st nap was 2 hours long when Paul's parents were here. Usually each nap is at least 60 minutes long. She usually wakes up between 5:15-6:00am, but I don't go get her until about 5:50 at the earliest. Her first nap is usually at 8am and her second nap usually begins around noon (although it sometimes starts as late as 1pm if she gets up later OR if her first nap is longer than usual). She goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 each night. She usually gets at least 10 hours of sleep at night. A few weeks ago I started letting her sleep with a blanket. She favors a soft green one my sister Wendy gave me 4 years ago (when we were hoping to adopt a baby). I plan to take that blanket with us to Antigua.

Although she used to say "hi" months ago, the only word she constistently says these days is "dada." I have told her that if she wants to give me a Mother's Day gift she could say "mama" for me. Probably just wishful thinking at this point. :-) She has learned how to say one sign - "milk" and she also shakes her head "no" when she means "no." She does that even if we're reading a book and the text says "no" - she shakes her head while I read the word "no." In fact in one book she actually shakes her head "no" once I turn to the page where it says "no, no you say that isn't right" before I say the words! You can tell she's very familiar with certain books as with the touch and feel ones she immeadietly puts her hand on the parts of each page which have something interesting to touch. I've tried to teach her the sign "all done," but shaking her head "no" does the trick in terms of letting me know she doesn't want to eat any more.

In terms of obeying when we use the term "no," she's getting better. I am by no means saying she listens 100% of the time, but she usually at least pauses, and many times she'll restrain herself from touching something she was just told not to touch. We'll keep working on that. :-)

She's getting a lot better at communicating her wishes in ways other than crying. For example if she wants to listen to one of her CD's, she sits down on the floor where we have the books that go with her CD's, opens up one of the books, and stares up at the mantle where the CD player is. She's done that for both Paul and I on separate occasions. Of course we immediately turn on the CD as she's requested. Another example would be on Wednesday she stood up and while facing Paul grabbed one of his hands. Then she turned herself around so her back was to him and lifted her arm and grabbed his other hand. That was her way of saying that she wanted to walk while holding his hands. Good job, Nadia!!

A few skills we are still working on include drinking from a sippy cup (still not going well), waving hi/goodbye, and clapping. I expect she'll be walking soon, and I am looking forward to hearing more new words and seeing more signs in the coming months.